DNA History, 23 and me: DON'T DO IT!!!

Started by Solar, October 18, 2015, 09:29:21 AM

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Solar

When companies like Ancestry.com and 23andMe first invited people to send in their DNA for genealogy tracing and medical diagnostic tests, privacy advocates warned about the creation of giant genetic databases that might one day be used against participants by law enforcement. DNA, after all, can be a key to solving crimes. It "has serious information about you and your family," genetic privacy advocate Jeremy Gruber told me back in 2010 when such services were just getting popular.

Now, five years later, when 23andMe and Ancestry both have over a million customers, those warnings are looking prescient. "Your relative's DNA could turn you into a suspect," warns Wired, writing about a case from earlier this year, in which New Orleans filmmaker Michael Usry became a suspect in an unsolved murder case after cops did a familial genetic search using semen collected in 1996. The cops searched an Ancestry.com database and got a familial match to a saliva sample Usry's father had given years earlier. Usry was ultimately determined to be innocent and the Electronic Frontier Foundation called it a "wild goose chase" that demonstrated "the very real threats to privacy and civil liberties posed by law enforcement access to private genetic databases."

The FBI maintains a national genetic database with samples from convicts and arrestees, but this was the most public example of cops turning to private genetic databases to find a suspect. But it's not the only time it's happened, and it means that people who submitted genetic samples for reasons of health, curiosity, or to advance science could now end up in a genetic line-up of criminal suspects.

Both Ancestry.com and 23andMe stipulate in their privacy policies that they will turn information over to law enforcement if served with a court order. 23andMe says it's received a couple of requests from both state law enforcement and the FBI, but that it has "successfully resisted them."

23andMe's first privacy officer Kate Black, who joined the company in February, says 23andMe plans to launch a transparency report, like those published by Google, Facebook and Twitter, within the next month or so. The report, she says, will reveal how many government requests for information the company has received, and presumably, how many it complies with.

"In the event we are required by law to make a disclosure, we will notify the affected customer through the contact information provided to us, unless doing so would violate the law or a court order," said Black by email.

Ancestry.com would not say specifically how many requests it's gotten from law enforcement. It wanted to clarify that in the Usry case, the particular database searched was a publicly available one that Ancestry has since taken offline with a message about the site being "used for purposes other than that which it was intended." Police came to Ancestry.com with a warrant to get the name that matched the DNA.
http://fusion.net/story/215204/law-enforcement-agencies-are-asking-ancestry-com-and-23andme-for-their-customers-dna/
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Dori

I'm not sure how I feel about this.  If your not committing rape and murder or robbing stores at gun point, you shouldn't show up in their database. 

DNA is a great way to find your families ancestors, but I guess if your worried you shouldn't do it. 
The danger to America is not Barack Obama but the citizens capable of entrusting a man like him with the Presidency.

Solar

Quote from: Dori on October 18, 2015, 09:52:53 AM
I'm not sure how I feel about this.  If your not committing rape and murder or robbing stores at gun point, you shouldn't show up in their database. 

DNA is a great way to find your families ancestors, but I guess if your worried you shouldn't do it.
I did 23and me, and am not too concerned...for now.
It's the future one needs to be concerned with, like health insurance, getting a job etc. We have no idea what the future holds and what the govt might allow, and for the sake of your offspring, it may be best to reconsider submitting.
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walkstall

Quote from: Dori on October 18, 2015, 09:52:53 AM
I'm not sure how I feel about this.  If your not committing rape and murder or robbing stores at gun point, you shouldn't show up in their database. 

DNA is a great way to find your families ancestors, but I guess if your worried you shouldn't do it.


What's the old adage.

"Figures don't lie but liars figure."

"Better safe than sorry."


I often think that when you give blood for a lab test.  What's to stop them from testing for DNA and start adding that to your medical records.  All medical records are now going on computer.  The last time I was in the doctors office all the old medical records were gone, there all on computer now.  The office was wide open as there was no files.  If they can not keep your checking account safe, how will they keep your medical records safe.   
A politician thinks of the next election. A statesman, of the next generation.- James Freeman Clarke

Always remember "Feelings Aren't Facts."

Dori

Quote from: Solar on October 18, 2015, 10:03:54 AMWe have no idea what the future holds and what the govt might allow, and for the sake of your offspring, it may be best to reconsider submitting.

You might be right.  My cousin and I worked together on our family tree.  We got stuck at our g-g-g-grandfather.  We were pretty sure which line he came from, but couldn't prove it.  He did the DNA and like magic, we were direct descendants from the one we thought we were.  Found a lot of extended cousins that way, who were also researching, and were able to get even more information from them. 
The danger to America is not Barack Obama but the citizens capable of entrusting a man like him with the Presidency.

Solar

Quote from: Dori on October 18, 2015, 10:53:46 AM
You might be right.  My cousin and I worked together on our family tree.  We got stuck at our g-g-g-grandfather.  We were pretty sure which line he came from, but couldn't prove it.  He did the DNA and like magic, we were direct descendants from the one we thought we were.  Found a lot of extended cousins that way, who were also researching, and were able to get even more information from them.
Same here, I was pretty amazed at the cousins I had out there.  :woot:
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Hoofer

Quote from: Solar on October 18, 2015, 11:42:38 AM
Same here, I was pretty amazed at the cousins I had out there.  :woot: 

I have given those services serious thought  :sneaky: ........... but  :sneaky: .... figured, :sneaky: someday, something like that was going to happen.  :scared: 

My name is the same as a powerful, influential politician turned talk show host - no financial gain for me.
My mother is a distant Cousin to a German brewer who "Americanized" their name - nope, not even a 6-pack.
My Grandmother is Indian, the same tribe that own casinos - the only chips I've ever seen, came from Cows.
My Grandfather had a live in maid and steward, was the personal treasurer/secretary to the largest importer of Barley and Hops... the hops I see are cotton tails rabbits, running away.

My dad died in debt, my mother basically the same, even after remarrying a GP & Surgeon (published several times, a pioneer).
Almost a dozen of us kids, farmer's children, raised in poverty...  we never knew the difference then, and though sometimes curious, my wife's history is probably more interesting.   One of her grand-cousins has a plot in boot-hill... the end of a long family tree ended with a card cheat, horse thief, or a wishful suitor... who got caught.

My father, owns the cattle on a thousand hills, sent His Son to buy me, and is now preparing a place for me - that is beyond my imagination.
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Eyesabide

If a person took a DNA test and found out he or she had at least 1/40th percent of an African blood line( or whatever the current percentage is ) would that person be able to take advantage of all the programs and privileges duly available to people of color, or would they be denied because of the color of their skin?
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Dori

Quote from: Eyesabide on November 04, 2015, 08:25:15 AM
If a person took a DNA test and found out he or she had at least 1/40th percent of an African blood line( or whatever the current percentage is ) would that person be able to take advantage of all the programs and privileges duly available to people of color, or would they be denied because of the color of their skin?

I think these ancestry DNA tests mostly cover the male paternal blood lines.  It would depend upon which ancestor you got the Indian blood from.  Female DNA I think is dealt with in a different way.   
The danger to America is not Barack Obama but the citizens capable of entrusting a man like him with the Presidency.

mhughes

These things always scare me a bit.

Find out you have a slightly higher chance of some disease than other people.  Years later get denied health or life insurance because of it.  Or hell, your kid gets denied because it might have been passed on to them.

walkstall

Quote from: mhughes on November 05, 2015, 05:56:50 AM
These things always scare me a bit.

Find out you have a slightly higher chance of some disease than other people.  Years later get denied health or life insurance because of it.  Or hell, your kid gets denied because it might have been passed on to them.

That time is coming for our grandkids and great grandkids.
A politician thinks of the next election. A statesman, of the next generation.- James Freeman Clarke

Always remember "Feelings Aren't Facts."

quiller

Quote from: walkstall on November 05, 2015, 03:28:14 PM
That time is coming for our grandkids and great grandkids.

Genetically-altered Frankenfoods are first, then Frankenbabies. By then, androgynous Frankenbabies. (For those with the time, re-read Huxley's Brave New World.)

kit saginaw

Quote from: quiller on November 20, 2015, 10:20:58 PM
Genetically-altered Frankenfoods are first, then Frankenbabies. By then, androgynous Frankenbabies. (For those with the time, re-read Huxley's Brave New World.)

With a TV-ad, looks like the 23andMe/Ancestry cabal are promoting Frankenracism...  Or whatever you call it when a guy celebrates being German by donning stereotypical biermeister-garb and culturally dancing... but he isn't sure he's German.  Hence, he sends-in his DNA. 

They inform him he's Scottish.  So he announces his intent to don stereotypical Highland-garb while celebrating with the corresponding folk-jig.

So the message is Americans meaninglessly celebrate where they came from, or the message is White Americans need to discover where they came from so they can unravel the American-fabric with another layer of diversity-embracing self-indulgence.

The cabal doesn't dare show an ethnic-American celebrating their Country-of-origin in ignorant smarm.  Or hasn't yet, that I've seen.

Solar

Quote from: kit saginaw on November 27, 2015, 03:11:51 PM
With a TV-ad, looks like the 23andMe/Ancestry cabal are promoting Frankenracism...  Or whatever you call it when a guy celebrates being German by donning stereotypical biermeister-garb and culturally dancing... but he isn't sure he's German.  Hence, he sends-in his DNA. 

They inform him he's Scottish.  So he announces his intent to don stereotypical Highland-garb while celebrating with the corresponding folk-jig.

So the message is Americans meaninglessly celebrate where they came from, or the message is White Americans need to discover where they came from so they can unravel the American-fabric with another layer of diversity-embracing self-indulgence.

The cabal doesn't dare show an ethnic-American celebrating their Country-of-origin in ignorant smarm.  Or hasn't yet, that I've seen.
:biggrin:
I had a different take when I saw it. I saw an idiot lib parading around in German garb, but as soon as they tossed him a new bone, he jumps on it with renewed pride.
Too bad it wasn't Native American discovering his European roots. Fauxcahauntus anyone? :laugh:
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Hoofer

Quote from: Solar on November 27, 2015, 03:33:56 PM
:biggrin:
I had a different take when I saw it. I saw an idiot lib parading around in German garb, but as soon as they tossed him a new bone, he jumps on it with renewed pride.
Too bad it wasn't Native American discovering his European roots. Fauxcahauntus anyone? :laugh:

literally laughed out loud!  "Hey, little-bits-warren!  It's confirmed you're 1/64th Redskin fan and 63/64th Red Chinese....!"

They're trying to make a buck.   Wasn't this originally a Mormon thing?   a couple of my family wasted alot of time and $ trying to trace it all back.  Maybe they didn't realize, someday the wrong people could use that DNA to hinder their children's freedom.
All animals are created equal; Some just take longer to cook.   Survival is keeping an eye on those around you...